I have sat in on plenty of panel prep calls over the years, and usually they are pretty straightforward. We talk through the questions, make sure everyone knows the format and move on. Every once in a while, though, a conversation makes you stop and think, OK, there’s going to be a lot to unpack here.

That was my reaction to the recent prep conversation for our upcoming “AI Innovations and Disruptors in Healthcare” panel at the Healthcare Innovation San Diego Summit on Sept. 28. I’m really looking forward to this one.

What I like about the discussion taking shape is that it isn’t going to be another conversation about how exciting AI is, or how difficult healthcare is, or how everyone needs to “do something” with AI. Instead, the panelists are going to address much more practical questions: What is actually working, where is AI creating real value, and what does healthcare need to do differently to make sure that value is realized responsibly? And, one theme came through loud and clear in our conversation: We need to rethink how we govern this technology.

AI Governance is Different

Chad Wilson, founder of Wild Duck Labs and a former CISO, made that point early in our conversation. There is, he said, a misconception that AI is simply another technology that can be managed through existing governance structures.

“Regular governance programs will not solve AI,” Chad said. In fact, he argued, they may “expose the holes in the governance program.”

That is a pretty provocative way to look at it, and I think he has a point. AI isn't simply another piece of software processing information according to a set of predetermined rules. Increasingly, it is making judgments along the way. As Chad put it, “We’re delegating work to technology that can do the work as well as decide on the work.”

That distinction has enormous implications for healthcare. Who is accountable for an AI-generated decision? What judgments are we allowing the technology to make? What constraints are in place? And how do we know what happened when an AI system makes a mistake?

Chad made another point that I found particularly interesting: Healthcare may actually be better positioned than many industries to tackle this problem. “Healthcare is the most capable industry for governing AI, but we just don’t know it.”

The industry has been governing people, clinical processes and decision-making for decades. The challenge is figuring out how to apply that same discipline to technology that can increasingly act on its own. I have a feeling governance is going to be one of the most interesting parts of this conversation in San Diego.

Moving Beyond the AI Hype

The panel also will take a hard look at another question that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore: What’s real?

Tyson Blauer, senior insights director at KLAS, raised the issue of the enormous amount of AI hype surrounding healthcare right now. There is no shortage of stories about what AI could do. But what are health systems actually doing with it, and what is genuinely moving the needle?

His comments dovetailed nicely with another theme that came up repeatedly in our conversation: ROI.

Allie Lutin, senior product marketing manager at CallRail, talked about everything from faster data capture to patient engagement and value realization. The question is no longer simply whether AI can do something. It is whether doing it actually produces a meaningful outcome. That may sound obvious, but it represents an important shift in the way healthcare organizations are approaching AI.

We’ve spent the past couple of years hearing a lot about the need to move quickly. Now organizations are asking harder questions: What are we building? What problem are we solving? What outcome are we trying to achieve? And is AI actually the best way to get there?

Adam Cherrington, founder of Aligned Health Advisory, who will moderate the panel, put it in wonderfully simple terms: “You don’t buy a hammer to hit something. You buy a hammer to build something. So what are you building?”

I think that is a pretty good description of where healthcare is with AI right now.

Maybe We Shouldn’t Automate Everything

Another idea from Tyson really caught my attention: Sometimes the answer isn't to automate a broken process.

Prior authorization is a good example. Healthcare has spent years trying to make an incredibly cumbersome process more efficient. AI may help automate pieces of it. But perhaps the bigger question is whether we should be redesigning the process itself.

In other words, do we really need to automate prior authorization, or should we be asking whether there is a better way to deliver that part of healthcare in the first place? That gets to the heart of what makes this panel interesting to me. The conversation isn't just about deploying technology. It's about rethinking how healthcare is delivered.

The panelists also will explore what is happening with patient engagement, revenue cycle, data silos, interoperability, personalization and the growing number of AI solutions entering the market.

And there is a particularly interesting question on the horizon: What will we see more of over the next six to 12 months? 

Why I Think This Conversation Matters

What I appreciated most about our prep conversation was the shared desire to make this useful. Adam said early on that he wanted the panel to focus on solutions, ideas and wins, rather than simply spending 40 minutes talking about how hard healthcare is. That is exactly what I want all of our Summit sessions to do.

Healthcare leaders don't need another list of reasons why AI is complicated. They need to hear from people who are experimenting with it, implementing it, governing it, measuring it and, just as importantly, figuring out where it doesn't belong. That's the conversation we’re building for San Diego.

If you're attending the Healthcare Innovation San Diego Summit on Sept. 28, I hope you'll join us for “AI Innovations and Disruptors in Healthcare.” Bring your questions. The panelists have agreed that this will be an interactive conversation, with audience questions welcomed throughout the session.

I’m particularly eager to hear where these leaders think we’re making real progress, where we’re getting ahead of ourselves and what healthcare organizations should be doing now to prepare for what comes next.

Because AI isn't waiting for healthcare to have all the answers. The more important question now is whether we're building the right systems, safeguards and strategies to use it well.

Would you like to join the conversation? Click here to register for the San Diego Summit.